"...The music may have lasted 33 hours, but the Austin City Limits Music Festival's impact will be felt for months to come. With 75,000 attendees daily at the ninth ACL, the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau anticipates visitorsand locals dropped over $51 million into city’s coffers via hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, transportation and attractions...."

"...Also on the hot seat is the return of the budget and marketing plan for the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau, aka "Visit Austin." With some hesitation over financial disruption, Council's decision on approval of Visit Austin's budget was postponed at the Sept. 28 meeting, after the agency's staff did a few turns in Council's barrel of shame over whether the agency had been profligate (or worse) in its spending on marketing and promotion (as alleged in a KXAN report and elsewhere)..."

"...• Conventions a'Coming: Council is reluctant to increase the contract payment for tourism andconvention promotion to the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau (from $14 million to $16 million annually, for five years, from the hotel/motel tax) ahead of the overall budget decisions. Some members are hoping to shift some of that funding elsewhere – despite pleas from ACVB staff that they have a five-year planning window and need certainty..."

"...[image-1]
As a veteran judge of the previous incarnation of this event which was run by the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureauand invited hotel mixologists to create Batini's, I must say this year's contest held at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center last week was a vast improvement, my headache notwithstanding...."

"...Earlier in the day, Council members also took out their collective HOT angst on the staff of Visit Austin (formerly the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau), in a discussion of the agency’s FY 2018 marketing plan and budget (generated by HOT funds). The discussion followed a KXAN-TV "investigative" report suggesting that Visit Austin had spent too much money on “concert tickets, alcohol, and jewelry” (the latter being Kendra Scott promotional items given to official visitors)..."

"...I bring this up because everyone is feeling the pinch – including your friends at Solid Waste Services. SWS, the Austin Water Utility, Department of Aviation (overseeing the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport), the AustinConvention Center, and the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau are delivering their recession-ready presentations to City Council today, as part of the 2008-09 annual budget...."

"...Local business boosters trumpeted the presence of MTV's most popular reality show as a boon to tourism, a chance to really show the rest of the world that Austin is more than the home of Jenna Bush's favorite margarita bars. The AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau, using economic formulas beloved by tourism associations, calculated the show is worth $20 million in publicity for the city, based on the idea that every half-hour episode is a free ad..."

"...The AustinConvention & VisitorsBureau has hosted an annual cocktail contest for the last six years. At first, bartenders from five Downtown hotels were challenged to create a drink called "the Batini," and a panel of celebrity judges chose the winner..."

Council looks to raid the budget intended to bring creative jobs to Austin

News StorySeptember 7, 2017, by Richard Whittaker

"...As the name suggests, the program's purpose is to attract visitorsand investors to Austin. Still technically dubbed the AustinConvention & VisitorsBureau, the office includes the Austin Film Commission, the Sports Commission, and the Austin Music Office, as well as tourism marketing, and the Convention Center sales offices..."

"...Nearly a decade down the road, even hardened Center critics (like us) can concede that the big box has been a hit: more than three million attendees, including nearly a million conventioneers, attending 1,500 events, including 321 conventions. (Conventions are the big prize, of course, since they bring out-of-towners who leave behind their money, including sales and bed tax.) Projections by the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau, the private nonprofit that markets events at the Center (which is city-owned and operated), say the expansion -- which cost nearly twice as much as the original facility -- will double not only the Center's size but its economic impact, eventually bringing in $250 million to the local economy...."

Austinite/SWLA-native proves you can go home again – and sing about it

DAILY The Gay PlaceJanuary 30, 2015, by Kate X Messer

"...Just in time for Mardi Gras, the Austin heartthrob honey crooner put those satiny vocals to work and released the sweet ode, "My Southwest Louisiana Home," a song commissioned by the Lake Charles Southwest Louisiana ConventionandVisitorsBureau for a new video being placed across the planet to promote the warmth and whimsy of the region...."

"...If successful, that would be a huge blow to the Austin economy: Nearly all of the UIL's state championship competitions are held in the Austin area every year. (The UIL is a department of the University of Texas and headquartered here in Austin.) According to the AustinConventionandVisitorsBureau, the events bring tens of thousands of people and tens of millions of dollars to town annually...."

Father and son lawmakers call for holding high school state competitions in other areas of the state

News StoryJanuary 16, 2009, by Lee Nichols

"...The events bring thousands of athletes, coaches, parents, and others to the capital city, meaning hotel bookings, restaurant sales, and shopping dollars. According to the AustinConvention & VisitorsBureau, the total economic impact of the UIL basketball tournaments each March is $19.2 million..."

In the shadow of another tragedy, the city takes a step toward justice

News ColumnJuly 1, 2005, by Michael King

"... Arts, Culture, & Entertainment: aimed at the public promotion and development of local African-American cultural activities, ranging from ConventionandVisitorsBureau liaison to an African-American cultural arts district, and including the institutional city promotion of signature events (e.g., Texas Relays, Juneteenth, Heman Sweatt Symposium)..."

"...Normally, the biennial convention attracts 7,000 to 10,000 people to its host town, with an economic impact of $9 million. This year, the Austin Conven­tion andVisitorsBureau expects 15,000 visitors, dropping $15.3 million into the local economy..."

"...Not only has it been a struggle getting people in the seats (or park, as the case may be), it's been an uphill battle for DiverseArts to find corporate sponsors to offset some of the festival's costs. In the past few years, the city itself has finally put some money where its slogan is, but the mostly clueless AustinVisitors & ConventionBureau has done nothing to help a festival that has never been the quagmire known as AquaFest...."

"...Ten of these neighborhoods, along with one business owners'
group, have created their own plans for themselves, all of which are
incorporated by reference into the document being discussed tonight. The
"recommended" plan on the table tonight was approved by the Portland Planning
Commission after 18 months of hearings, workshops, and testimony on the
"proposed" plan, which had been drafted by the city's Planning Bureau with help
from a citizen's advisory committee, a technical advisory committee, and
seemingly more chances for public input than the trees have leaves, including a
questionnaire sent to each of the more than 70,000 households and businesses in
Outer Southeast..."